Methods and apparatus for managing notifications for service events

ABSTRACT

The communications method may include opening a communication channel, e.g. a HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection, between a service event source and an event management platform, and at the event management platform, generating a request to the service event source, the request including information associated with the communication channel and requested event information related to a plurality of services offered by the service event source for a mobile wireless device associated with a given service user; sending the request to the service event source. The communication channel is maintained open to receive notifications transmitted from the service event source including requested event information related to the plurality of services offered by the service event source and related to the single service user. The notifications are provided to the mobile wireless device associated with the given service user.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to provisional application Ser. No.61/234,220 filed Aug. 14, 2009, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to managing notifications andevents from a service event source. More particularly, disclosed hereinare methods and apparatus for managing and receiving by an eventmanagement platform notifications for events from a service eventsource, such as for example recent communications and personalinformation management updates, e.g., for a user account offered by aservice provider.

BACKGROUND

Communications services (such as electronic mail (email), instantmessaging, text messaging), personal information management services(such as address book and calendar), information feeding services (suchas RSS and other news feeds) and social networking services (such asFacebook, MySpace and Twitter), have become an integral part of businessand personal communications. Many users have multiple email and otherservice accounts for business and personal use. With the increasedavailability of mobile devices that can send and receive email andaccess other applications using wireless networks, many users wirelesslyaccess email and other services from a variety of sources, includinggeneric or standards-based e-mail servers such as IMAP or POP3 mailservers, servers for corporate email, “groupware”, or collaborationsystems such as MICROSOFT EXCHANGE, LOTUS NOTES, and NOVELL GROUPWISE,and servers for proprietary email and application services such asGMAIL, GOOGLE APPS, YAHOO!, HOTMAIL, AOL, etc. Yet, distribution andsynchronization of email and service updates across multiple mailboxesand over wireless networks can be challenging, particularly when this isdone on a large scale for numerous service consumers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example embodimentof an event management network including an event management platform.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating further details of anexample embodiment of an event management network including an eventmanagement platform.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are flowcharts illustrating example embodiments orportions thereof of example embodiments of communication methods.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a mobile wirelesscommunications device for use with the event management network.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram illustrating another exampleembodiment of an event management network including an event managementplatform

FIGS. 7A and 7B are flowcharts illustrating example embodiments orportions thereof of communication management methods.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings in which preferred embodiments ofthe invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Likenumbers refer to like elements throughout. The dimensions of layers andregions may be exaggerated in the figures for greater clarity.

According to aspects of the present disclosure, an event managementplatform may intermediate to receive, manage, and disburse eventinformation, including notifications, from service event sources toservice consumers. A service event source may include, for example, ane-mail server, a groupware or collaboration system, or a proprietaryemail or application server or service. An event may include theaddition, change, update, or removal of information managed by theservice event source, or groupings thereof, or changes to the serviceitself or user accounts therewith. A notification may include advising aservice consumer of the occurrence of an event, and may also includeadvising the service consumer of content or other information related tothe event (i.e., a notification need not be limited to advice that theevent has occurred).

As non-limiting, typical examples, service event source may be an emailsystem, an event may be the arrival of a new email message at the emailsystem, a service consumer may be an email application running on amobile communications device configured for wireless network access, andan event notification may be a message indicating the aforementionedarrival of the new email message, optionally including some metadatadescribing the message or some of the contents of the message; thenotification is processed by the event management platform, and at leasta derivative of the notification is forwarded to the email applicationon the mobile communications device so that it may take appropriateaction. This is merely an example; the aforementioned components maytake various other forms in other embodiments. For just one example ofan alternative embodiment, the service event source could be the emailapplication on a mobile communications device, and the service consumercould be an email system associated with the device or its user.

The event management platform includes an event manager component, anevent manager consumer interface, a database, and an event notificationsubscriber interface which operate in concert to provide the functionsof the event management platform. A provisioning system optionally maybe part of the event management platform or may be associated therewith.

The event management platform may authenticate a communication channelwith the service event source. In an example embodiment, HTTP BasicAuthentication is used over SSL.

The event management platform may discover instances of services at theservice event source which are available for notifications. At varioustimes, the event management platform may send to a service event sourcea request for the identities of the instances of a service type that areavailable for notifications. This request may be used to identifyspecific instances of services so that subscriptions are only sent inconnection with those instances for which notifications are desired. Amethod for discovering instances of a service type that are availablefor notifications includes preparing and sending a request to theservice event source, including requested identification informationassociated with a plurality of services consumed by a single user.

The event management platform may present to the service event sourcerequests to subscribe to notifications. During the notification setupprocess for a user, one or more subscription requests can be sent fromthe event management platform to a service event source indicating thatnotifications should be sent to the event management platform forcertain events related to the associated service.

The event management platform may then present to the event managementplatform a notification request indicating that an event has occurred. Aservice event source can generate a notification request to the eventmanagement platform when any of the events occur for the users'subscribed service instances. A method for presenting a notification tothe event management platform includes preparing and sending anotification including notice of an event related to a service offeredby the service event source and a description of the event. Thedescription of the event may include data changes and other informationrelated to the event in addition to notice of the occurrence of theevent.

The event management platform may present to the service event source arequest to “unsubscribe” to notifications. When the notifications on auser account are no longer desired for a service instance (e.g. theaccount is removed), an unsubscribe request can be sent from the eventmanagement platform to a service event source with the id of thesubscription that should be deleted. The event management platform maypresent to the service event source a “get information” request seekinginformation regarding the subscriptions of a user.

A method for requesting service event related communications from aservice event source may include opening a communication channel,preparing a request to the service event source, the request includinginformation associated with the communication channel and requestedevent information related to a plurality of services offered by theservice event source and related to a single user consuming theservices, and sending the request to the service event source. A furthermethod for requesting service event related communications from aservice event source may include similar steps directed to opening acommunication channel; a service offered by the service event source andrelated to a plurality of users consuming the service. A further methodfor requesting service account information from a service event sourcemay include preparing a request to the service event source, the requestincluding requested identification information associated with aplurality of services consumed by a single user, and sending the requestto the service event source. A further method for requesting serviceevent related communications from a service event source may includepreparing a request to the service event source, the request includingrequested event information related to a domain hosted by the serviceevent source and sending the request to the service event source.

This and other objects, advantages and features in accordance with thepresent invention may be provided by a communications method comprising:opening a communication channel between a service event source and anevent management platform; at the event management platform, generatinga request to the service event source, the request including informationassociated with the communication channel and requested eventinformation related to a plurality of services offered by the serviceevent source for a mobile wireless device associated with a givenservice user; sending the request to the service event source;maintaining the communication channel open to receive notificationstransmitted from the service event source including requested eventinformation related to the plurality of services offered by the serviceevent source and related to the single service user; and providing thenotifications to the mobile wireless device associated with the givenservice user.

The communications channel may be a HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure(HTTPS) connection, a pull channel, a synchronous communication channeland/or a network socket. The service event source may be an emailserver. The requested event information may be a subscription request,and the information associated with the communication channel may be asubscription channel ID.

Also, a communication method may include: opening a communicationchannel between a service event source and an event management platform;at the event management platform, generating a request to the serviceevent source, the request including information associated with thecommunication channel and requested event information related to aservice offered by the service event source for a mobile wireless deviceassociated with a given service user; sending the request to the serviceevent source; maintaining the communication channel open to receivenotifications transmitted from the service event source includingrequested event information related to the service offered by theservice event source and related to the plurality of service users; andproviding the notifications to the mobile wireless device associatedwith the given service user.

Objects, advantages and features in accordance with the presentinvention may be provided by an event management platform for managingcommunications between at least one service event source and a mobilewireless device associated with a given service user, the eventmanagement platform comprising: an event notification subscriberinterface being configured to send a request to the service eventsource, the request including information associated with acommunication channel and requested event information related to aplurality of services offered by the service event source for the mobilewireless device associated with the given service user; and an eventmanager being configured to open a communication channel to the at leastone service event source, and maintain the communication channel open toreceive notifications transmitted from the service event sourceincluding requested event information related to the service offered bythe service event source for the mobile wireless device associated withthe given service user.

Also, the event management platform may include: an event notificationsubscriber interface being configured to send a request to the serviceevent source, the request including information associated with acommunication channel and requested event information related to aservice offered by the service event source for the mobile wirelessdevices associated with the plurality of service users; and an eventmanager being configured to open a communication channel to the at leastone service event source, and maintain the communication channel open toreceive notifications transmitted from the service event sourceincluding requested event information related to the service offered bythe service event source for the mobile wireless devices associated withthe plurality of service user.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of an event management network100, constructed according to an aspect of the present disclosure. Theevent management network 100 includes at least one service event source105 connected to an event management platform 120 (through connection115). The event management platform 120 is connected to a wirelesscommunications network 130 (through connection 125) and the wirelesscommunications network is connected to at least one service consumer 140(though connection 135). Although FIG. 1 illustrates multiple serviceevent sources 105, an example embodiment may include one service eventsource, while another example embodiment may include multiple serviceevent sources. Furthermore, although FIG. 1 illustrates only one serviceconsumer 140, an example embodiment may include one service consumer,while another example embodiment may include multiple service consumers.

Event management network 100 allows a service consumer 140, such as awireless communications device, to receive data associated with an eventof a particular service, from a service event source 105. The term“service” as used herein is intended broadly to refer to any sort ofinformation service or application that may be offered by an informationprocessing device, service provider, network, or the like, any of whichmay be considered a “service event source”, in connection with whichservice it may be useful to inform or notify event management platform120 of an event or change in information associated with the service orin the service itself.

The event management platform can deliver data related to the event tothe service consumer, which may be done in a synchronization one eventat a time or for a group of events. Service event sources as used hereinmay include without limitation: generic or standards-based e-mailservers such as IMAP or POP3 mail servers, servers for corporate email,“groupware”, or collaboration systems such as MICROSOFT EXCHANGE, LOTUSNOTES, and NOVELL GROUPWISE, and servers for proprietary email andapplication services such as GMAIL, GOOGLE APPS, YAHOO!, HOTMAIL, AOL,etc. Services may include without limitation: communications services(such as electronic mail (email), instant messaging, text messaging,personal information management services (such as address book, task, orcalendar management), information feed or syndication services (such asRSS, Usenet, and other news feeds) and social networking services (suchas Facebook, MySpace and Twitter). An event may include withoutlimitation any addition, update, modification, deletion, or otherchange, with respect to the content or information managed by any ofthese services, or with respect to the services themselves.

A notification may include, without limitation, advising the eventmanagement platform of the occurrence of an event, and may optionallyinclude advising the event management platform of the actual added,updated, modified, deleted, or otherwise changed information, or someportion thereof, by any means or mechanism. The event managementplatform may then deliver data related to the event to the serviceconsumer.

Examples of events may include and without limitation: Add (an item wasadded to the service instance); Update (a specific item was updated inthe service instance); Remove (an item was removed from the serviceinstance); readStatusChange (the read/unread status for an item haschanged); repliedStatusChange (the replied status for an item haschanged); presenceChange (the presence status for a contact entry haschanged); attachmentAdd (an attachment has been added to an item);attachmentRemove (an attachment has been removed from an item);attachmentUpdate (an update has occurred to an attachment on an item);metaDataUpdate (metadata for an item has changed.); associateCategory (acategory association has been added to an item); disassociateCategory (acategory association has been removed from an item); categoryCreate (anew category has been added to the category list); categoryRemove (acategory has been removed from the category list); categoryRename (acategory name has been changed); serviceInstanceUpdate (some update hasbeen made to the service instance. E.g. credentials have changed.);serviceSuspend (the service is suspended for a period of time); other(catchall event type).

In general operation, the service consumer 140 can receive data relatedto events which are produced in or arise from the service event source105, and which are managed by the event management platform 120. Eventmanagement platform 120 can be any appropriate computer system, server,or other hardware or software components in any combination, capable ofmanaging events, as known to those skilled in the art. Through eventmanagement platform 120, data related to events from a service eventsource 105 may be pushed to, pulled from, or otherwise delivered toservice consumer 140. This may occur in a synchronization between theevent management platform 120 and service consumer 140, in an exampleembodiment. Service event source 105, event management platform 120 andservice consumer 140 need not be located at the same location.Furthermore, the event management platform 120 and service consumer 140may be combined, in an example embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of an event management network200, according to a further aspect of the present disclosure. The eventmanagement network 200 includes at least one service event source 205connected to an event management platform 220 (e.g., through connections245, 265 or 285). The event management platform 220 is connected to awireless communications network 230 (through connection 225) and thewireless communications network is connected to at least one serviceconsumer 240 (though connection 235). Although FIG. 2 illustratesmultiple service event sources 205, an example embodiment may includeone service event source, while another example embodiment may includemultiple event sources. Furthermore, although FIG. 2 illustrates onlyone service consumer 240, an example embodiment may include one serviceconsumer, while another example embodiment may include multiple serviceconsumers.

The event management platform 220 includes an event notificationsubscriber interface 250, an event manager 270, an event notificationconsumer interface 280 and a database 290. The database 290 is connectedto event manager 270 (through connection 297), the event notificationsubscriber interface 250 (through connection 296), the eventnotification consumer interface 280 (through connection 295). The eventnotification subscriber interface 250 is connected to service eventsource 205 (through connection 245) and to a provisioning system 260(through connection 255). The event manager 270 is connected to serviceevent source 205 (through connection 265) and the event notificationconsumer interface 280 (through connection 275). The event notificationconsumer interface 280 is connected to service event source 205 (throughconnection 285), the database 290 (through connection 295) and to thewireless network 230 (through connection 225). Event management network200 allows a service consumer 240, such as a wireless communicationsdevice, to receive events on services from a service event source 205.

In general operation, the service consumer 240 may subscribe to certainevents which are produced in or arise from the service event source 205,and which are managed by the event management platform 220. Serviceevent source 205 can be any suitable server (or collection thereof), orany service or service provider which furnishes an application orservice in connection with which related events may be useful orrelevant to the service consumer 240. Service event source 205 may, forexample but without limitation, include any one or more of a generic orstandards-based e-mail server such as an IMAP or POP3 mail server,server for corporate email, “groupware”, or collaboration systems suchas MICROSOFT EXCHANGE, LOTUS NOTES, and NOVELL GROUPWISE, andproprietary email and application services such as Gmail, Google Apps,Yahoo, Hotmail, GMAIL, GOOGLE APPS, YAHOO!, HOTMAIL, AOL, and the like.Event management platform 220 can be any appropriate computer system,server, or other hardware or software components in any combination,capable of managing events, as known to those skilled in the art.

Through event management platform 220, events from a service eventsource 205 may be pushed to, pulled from, or otherwise delivered toservice consumer 240. This may occur in a synchronization between theevent management platform 120 and service consumer 140, in an exampleembodiment. Service event source 205, event management platform 220 andservice consumer 240 need not be located at the same location.Furthermore, the event management platform 120 and service consumer 140may be combined, in an example embodiment.

Communication between the event management platform 220 and a serviceevent source 205 may occur over any appropriate communications channel.In an example embodiment, a secure communications channel may be used,such as for example and without limitation, a channel employing theHTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) protocol. Other exampleembodiments are: a synchronous communications channel, afirewall-friendly communications channel, and a socket.

In example embodiments, database 290 may be any suitable database server(such as a server running the ORACLE, DB2, or MySQL database managementsystem software, as non-limiting examples). Event manager 270 may be aservlet inside a web sever (such as an Apache web server, as anon-limiting example), event notification subscriber interface may be aserver (such as a SOAP server, as a non-limiting example), and eventnotification consumer interface may be a server (such as a proxy server,as a non-limiting example).

Furthermore, any and all of service event sources 105 and 205, eventmanagement platform 120 and 220, event notification subscriber interface250, event manager 270, event notification consumer interface 280, anddatabase 290 may be realized using one or more suitable programmablecomputer systems running a commercially available operating system. Forexample, these items may be realized using commercial server computershaving INTEL IA-32- or IA-64-based processors and running an operatingsystem in the MICROSOFT WINDOWS Server family. Other computers andoperating systems could also be used. Further, in some cases, someelements may be implemented using special purpose hardware or systems.For example, database 290 could be realized using a special-purposecomputer or other digital system having functions optimized for orlimited to providing a database service. Although some of elements 105,205, 120, 220, 250, 270, 280, and 290 are depicted as distinct elementsand may be realized as such (i.e., using separate server computers),skilled artisans will appreciate that these elements may be refactoredor virtualized as necessary to meet expected load. Thus, these elementscould also be realized as any number of different processes, tasks,threads, or other operating-system-defined entities running on the samecomputer or on several computers.

In various example embodiments, control of or operational responsibilityfor principal elements of FIG. 2 may be distributed among severaldifferent entities. For example, as best seen in FIG. 2, there isdepicted an example configuration of control or operationalresponsibility defined by three rectangular zones shown in broken lines.In an example embodiment, a first zone 296 includes the service eventsources 205, which may, for non-limiting example, be under the controlof or operated by an internet service provider (ISP), an applicationservice provider (ASP) (such as a commercial e-mail service), or asimilar entity. A second zone 297 includes the event management platform220, and optionally the provisioning system 260, and may, fornon-limiting example, be under the control of or operated by a differentinternet service provider or application service provider. Second zone297 could also be under the control of or operated by a provider ofsupplemental services designed to enhance the operation of wirelessmobile communications devices, which services could include, fornon-limiting examples, management of synchronization of PIM informationbetween such devices and the services of ISP, ASP, or similar entities,in addition to management of event notifications as described in thepresent disclosure. A third zone 298 includes the service consumer 240,and, for non-limiting example, may be operated by or under the controlof the end user of a wireless mobile communications device.

In a further example embodiment configured as depicted in FIG. 2, thefirst zone 296 may be under control of or operated by an ISP, ASP, orcommercial email service, as previously described. The second zone 297may be under control of or operated by an enterprise, such as abusiness, non-profit organization, or government entity, and the eventmanagement platform 220 could be operated as part of such entity'senterprise network. The third zone 298 may be operated by or under thecontrol of the end user of a wireless mobile communications device, aspreviously described.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of another example embodiment of an eventmanagement system 900 constructed according to an aspect of the presentdisclosure. The event management system 900 is similar to and containsthe same elements as the event management network 200 of FIG. 2, butFIG. 6 depicts a different example configuration of control orresponsibility defined by two rectangular zones shown in broken lines.In an example embodiment, a first zone 996 includes both the serviceevent sources 205 and the event management platform 220, which may, fornon-limiting example, be under the control of or operated by an internetservice provider (ISP), an application service provider (ASP) (such as acommercial e-mail service), or a similar entity. First zone 996 couldalso be under the control of or operated by an enterprise, such as abusiness, non-profit organization, or government entity, and the serviceevent sources 205 and the event management platform 220 could both beoperated as part of such entity's enterprise network. A second zone 998includes the service consumer 240, and, for non-limiting example, may beoperated by or under the control of the end user of a wireless mobilecommunications device.

Notification Channels

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, a notificationchannel is a communication link between a service event source (such as105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2) and an event management platform (suchas 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) that carries notifications to andfrom the service event source and event management platform. There maybe two types of channels supported: pull and push.

A pull channel is initiated by the event management platform to theservice event source in the form of an HTTPS request that is notimmediately closed. Upon receiving the request, the service event sourcewill occasionally transmit notifications, as events arise or asnotifications are otherwise generated by the service event source, tothe event management platform over the open HTTPS session. If thischannel is closed by the service event source, the event managementplatform will reinitiate the connection. Multiple subscription channelsmay be transmitted over a single HTTPS session.

Referring FIG. 2, a subscription request and a pull channel initiationmay be performed as follows, in an example embodiment. The eventnotification subscriber interface 250 can send a subscription request toa service event source 205 with a subscription channel ID, which canidentify one or more service instances in which notifications aredesired. The service event source 205 responds to the event notificationsubscriber interface 250 with a subscription ID. In initiating the pullchannel, the event notification consumer interface 280 may send acommunication to the event manager 270 to start receiving notificationsfrom a service event source 205. The event manager 270 can open thecommunication channel and send a notification registration request(which may include the subscription channel ID) to the service eventsource 205. While this communication channel remains open the serviceevent source 205 can send notification messages for the subscriptionchannel ID. The communication channel can remain open until either theevent manager 270 or the service event source 205 closes it.

In accord with a further aspect of the present disclosure, FIG. 3 is aflow diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a method 300 in whicha pull channel is used to request notifications related to a pluralityof services offered by the service event source and related to a singleuser consuming the service. Referring to FIG. 3, at 305, acommunications channel is opened. At 310, a request to the service eventsource is prepared, the request including information associated withthe a communications channel and requested event information related toa plurality of services offered by the service event source and relatedto a single user consuming the services. At 305, the request is sent. Inan example embodiment, the information associated with thecommunications channel is information which identifies the channel, suchas a channel ID. The steps of method 300 may, for example, beimplemented by event manager 270.

In accord with a further aspect of the present disclosure, FIG. 4 is aflow diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a method 400 in whicha pull channel is used to request notifications related to a serviceoffered by the service event source and related to a plurality of usersconsuming the service. Referring to FIG. 4, at 405, a communicationschannel is opened. At 410, a request to the service event source isprepared, the request including information associated with thecommunications channel and requested event information related to aservice offered by the service event source and related to a pluralityof users consuming the service. At 405, the request is sent. In anexample embodiment, the information associated with the communicationschannel is information which identifies the channel, such as channel ID.The steps of method 400 may, for example, be implemented by eventmanager 270.

A push channel is initiated by the service event source. Asnotifications are generated, the service event source will transmitthose notifications to the event management platform by first opening acommunications channel (such as by connecting to a service addressed bya URL (Uniform Resource Locator)). This connection is very short livedas it is closed after each notification message.

Referring FIG. 2, a subscription request and a push channel initiationmay be performed as follows, in an example embodiment. The eventnotification subscriber interface 250 can send a subscription request toa service event source 205 with a notifyURL and optionally, asubscription channel ID, which can identify one or more serviceinstances in which notifications are desired. When an event occurs onone of those service instances, the service event source 205 opens acommunications channel and sends notification messages to the eventmanager 270. The communications channel may be closed after eachnotification message.

The present disclosure addresses various aspects of managing the eventsby an event management platform 120, arising from a service event source105 and subscribed to by service consumer 140.

Authentication

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided means to authenticate a communication channel. In an exampleembodiment, HTTP Basic Authentication is used over SSL. The credentialsused are domain specific and will be negotiated between the eventmanagement platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) and theservice event source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2).

In an example embodiment, negotiation may be conducted as follows:

POST <subscription-url> HTTP/1.1 Authorization: BasicQWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==

In this example, the username and password are transmitted asconcatenated strings separated by ‘:’ and encoded using BASE64 encoding.In other example embodiments other authentication methods may be used,such as MD5, digest, token based authentication.

Discovery Request (Event Management Platform->Service Event Source)

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anapproach to discover instances of services which are available fornotifications. At various times, the event management platform 120 maysend to a service event source 105 a request for the identities of theinstances of a service type that are available for notifications. Thisrequest may be used to identify specific instances of services so thatsubscriptions are only sent in connection with those instances for whichnotifications are desired. An instance of a service can be defined as asingle service for a single user. For example, a user's single emailaccount is one service instance. In another example, a user's threeemail accounts are three service instances.

An example of desired notifications is as follows: a user may havemultiple address books (e.g., separate address books for work andpersonal use) and may desire notifications on some instances and not onothers. A discovery request can be sent from the event managementplatform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) to a service eventsource (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2) to request theidentified instances of a service type that are available fornotifications. This is useful when multiple instances of services areavailable and notifications are desired for some but not all of thoseinstances.

Referring to FIG. 2, a discovery request may be performed by an exampleembodiment as follows. Provisioning system 260 sends a discovery requestcommunication to event notification subscriber interface 250, which thensends a discovery request communication to a service event source 205.The service event source 205 responds to the discovery request from theevent notification subscriber interface 250 with the instances of aservice type that are available for notifications and the eventnotification subscriber interface 250 forwards this information to thedatabase 290.

The response may contain the UIDs and some meta-data regarding theservice instances in an example embodiment. This message need notnecessarily be associated with a Subscription Request as the user maynot desire notifications on any of the service instances.

In an example embodiment communications may be conducted as follows:

POST <subscription-url> HTTP/1.1 <?xml version=″1.0″?> <requestxmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f-4576- b083-3386ce7bb984:”ts=”timestamp” > <s:discover > <s:serviceDiscovers:userId=″efudd@lt.com″ s:serviceType=″email″/> </s:discover> </request>

Subscription-url identifies the service event source's subscriptioninterface. This URL is configurable on the event management platform'send such that URL changes can be accommodated. xmlns identifies thenamespace which is defined as a uuid. ts a Timestamp in UTC dateTimewhen the request was generated. userId is the account's user id.serviceType (optional) identifies the type of service that the requestis concerned with (e.g. email, calendar, contacts, im, socialNetworkingor other). When absent, all service instances associated with the userIdare requested.

In an example embodiment, the response to the discovery request may takethe form:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK <?xml version=″1.0″?> <s:responsexmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f- 4576-b083-3386ce7bb984:”retCode=”returnCode” message=”message”/> <s:discover ><s:servicediscoverresponse> <s:service s:userId=″efudd@lt.com″s:serviceType=″email″ s:serviceInstanceUID=″392393″s:serviceProtocol=”imap” s:name=″inbox″ s:location=″inbox\home″/></s:servicediscoverresponse> </s:discover> </s:response>

serviceInstanceUID is the unique id for the service instance. This uidmust be unique for a userId. The event management platform 120 or 220will store this value for later use in processing the subscriptions.location (optional) is the location of the service instance within theuser's account. Name (optional) is the localized name of the serviceinstance. serviceProtocol (optional) indicates the protocol used for theservice (e.g. pop, imap . . . ). retCode attribute contains the returncode for the request and message contains the detail string. Messageattribute is optional and contains the error-detail. This string is forthe consumption of the event management platform 120 or 220 and shouldnot be localized.

The discover message may contain multiple service discovery requests, inan example embodiment. These may be for a single user account or formultiple user accounts.

If there is an error in processing the discovery request such as invalidcredentials, incorrectly formatted request, or the like, retCode on theresponse element contains the error code indicating that the completerequest failed and there will not be any discover elements in theresponse. retCode on the serviceDiscoverResponse element identifies anyerror for the data in the subscription element. Multiple instances ofthe discover sub elements may be present in the request and response.

Subscription Request (Event Management Platform->Service Event Source)

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided an approach to present to the service event source requests tosubscribe to notifications. A subscription request may be used to set upsubscriptions on a specific user's service or on a domain, in exampleembodiments. During the notification setup process for a user, one ormore subscription requests can be sent from the event managementplatform 120 to a service event source 105 indicating that notificationsshould be sent to the event management platform 120 for certain eventsrelated to the associated service.

The service event source 105 can generate subscription-ids that areunique within that user account and respond to the subscription requestwith the subscription-ids. The subscription request can be sent from theevent management platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) tothe service event source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2)requesting that a new subscription for notifications be added to theservice instance. A separate subscription request can be sent for eachaccount and service. Multiple subscriptions can be supported for eachservice on a service event source user account. The subscription requestneed not identify specific events, but may do so in an exampleembodiment. It is expected that any and all service events aresubscribed including service metadata events.

In an example embodiment according to an aspect of the presentdisclosure, there can be various types of subscription requests, forexample, as described below.

ServiceInstanceSubscribe: This message requests that notifications besent from the service event source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG.2) to the event management platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 ofFIG. 2) when data items within the user's service instance change (e.g.new mail).

DomainSubscribe: This message requests that notifications be sent fromthe service event source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2) to theevent management platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) whendata associated with the domain has changed. Examples of such changesare when new users are added to the domain or domain status has change(e.g. credentials are soon to expire).

Referring to FIG. 2, a subscription request may be performed by anexample embodiment as follows. Event notification subscriber interface250, sends a subscription request communication to service event source205. The service event source 205 responds to the subscription requestwith a response. The response from the service event source 205 containsthe subscription ID which uniquely identifies a user's subscription andmust be unique for a user. Subscription ID is later used duringnotification and unsubscribe requests.

In an example embodiment, communications may be conducted as follows:

POST <subscription-url> HTTP/1.1 <?xml version=″1.0″?> <requestxmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f-4576- b083-3386ce7bb984:”ts=”timestamp” > <s:subscription> <s:serviceInstanceSubscribes:userId=″Service event source user id″ s:serviceInstanceUID=″uid of themailbox″ s:notifyURL=″url″ s:subscriptionGroup=″abc″s:subscriptionChannel=″xyz″ s:notifyWindow=″30″s:notificationBufferInterval=″15″ s:notifyInfo=″opaque-data″/><s:domainSubscribe s:domainName=”somedomain.com” s:notifyUrl=”url”s:subscriptionChannel=”xyz” s:notifyInfo=”opaque-data”/></s:subscription> </request>

userId is the account's user ID.

serviceinstanceUID uniquely identifies the service instance. Thiscorresponds to the serviceinstanceUID attribute returned in thediscovery response. Alternatively, this may be determined by the serviceevent source. notifyURL (optional) is the call back URL used by theservice event source to send back Push notifications. This may beomitted for Pull notifications. When present, the service event sourceshould immediately initiate transmitting notification events to thenotifyURL as they are generated. subscriptionGroup (optional) is anarbitrary group assignment for the subscription. subscriptionChannel(optional) associates this subscription with an instance of anotification channel. These channels may be Pull or Push. notifyWindow(optional) identifies the number of days in the past to allow itemnotifications. E.g. for example, this attribute may specifynotifications for changes made to items within the past 30 days. Thisattribute is most useful for calendar service types.notificationBufferInterval (optional) is the minimum interval betweennotification messages for a single subscription ID. The value is inseconds.

notifyInfo (optional) is a device-specific, opaque data string from theevent management platform to be passed back in the notifications. IfnotifyInfo is present in the subscription request it must be returned innotifications. Opaque data can be defined as data to be used by theevent management platform and that is not visible or readable by aservice event source. The data may be encoded or encrypted, such as byusing Base 64. domainName identifies a domain within the service eventsource's system. Domain is intended to be a grouping of user accountswithin the service event source. It may correspond to an actual domain(e.g. someDomain.com) or it may correspond to some other grouping method(e.g. CompanyA vs CompanyB). notifyURL and/or subscriptionChannel may bepresent in the message.

In an example embodiment, a response to the subscription request maytake the form:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK <?xml version=″1.0″?> <requestxmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f-4576- b083-3386ce7bb984:”retCode=”returnCode” message=”message”/> <s:subscription><s:subscribeResponse s:subId=″subscription-id″ s:userId=″Service eventsource user id″ s:serviceInstanceUID=″uid of the service instance″s:serviceInstanceName=″someuserid@dom ain.com″s:notifyinfo=″opaque-data″ s:retCode=″returnCode″ s:message=″message″/><s:domainSubscribeResponse s:subId=″subscription-id″s:domainName=”someDomain.com” s:notifyinfo=″opaque-data″s:retCode=″returnCode″ s:message=″message″/> </s:subscription></request>

subId is the subscription ID that identifies the subscription. Thesubscription ID must be unique for a userId. The event managementplatform will store this value for later use in processing thenotification or unsubscribing. userId (optional) is the user'sauthentication id for the service (omitted for domain subscriptions).serviceinstanceUID is the same as that from the request.serviceInstanceName is the service event source specific name for thisservice instance. notifyInfo (optional) is the opaque data passed in therequest. If notifyInfo was present in the subscription request, it mustbe present in the response. retCode attribute contains the return codefor the request and message contains the detail string. Messageattribute is optional and contains the error-detail. This string is forthe consumption of the event management platform system and should notbe localized.

If there is an error in processing the subscription request such asinvalid credentials, incorrectly formatted request, etc, retCode on therequest element contains the error code indicating that the completerequest failed and there will not be any subscription elements in theresponse. retCode on the subscriptionResponse element identifies anyerror for the data in the subscription element.

Notification Channel Management

Management of the notification channel may be needed so that the correctnotification URL and notifications are associated with the correctnotification channel. Management is defined for individual and groupsubscriptions as well as Pull and Push channels.

Notification Registration Request (Event Management Platform->ServiceEvent Source)

The Notification Registration Request is used to manage the notificationchannel in aggregate (e.g. start notifications for a channel for pulltype notifications, provide a URL for push type notifications). This isin contrast to Subscription request, which is used to set upsubscriptions on a specific user's service or on a domain. Thenotification registration request is used to designate the correctnotifyURL for individual and group Push notifications as well as toidentify which channel and group notifications are to be transmitted ona given Pull channel.

Notification Registration

The NotificationRegistration request message has slightly differentsemantics for Push vs Pull channels. In the Push channel model, thechannelRegistration and groupRegistration messages notify a serviceevent source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2) which URL to sendnotifications for the channel or group. Upon receipt of these messagesfrom the event management platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG.2) in a Push model, the service event source should start sendingnotification events to the designated notifyURL. The HTTPS connectionmay be closed after the appropriate HTTP response is sent. Sinceindividual subscriptions may contain notifyUrl attributes, this messageis used to change that url for an entire subscription channel.

Referring to FIG. 2, a Push channel notification registration requestmay be performed by an example embodiment as follows. Event notificationsubscriber interface 250, sends a notification registration requestcommunication to a service event source 205 regarding the url to sendnotifications for the channel or group.

In the Pull channel model, the channelRegistration and groupRegistrationelements notify the a service event source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205of FIG. 2) which channel and group notifications are to be transmittedon the current open HTTPS connection. Upon receipt of this message fromthe event management platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2)in the Pull case, the service event source should start sendingnotification events for the specified channel or group over the current,open HTTPs connection. In the Pull model, the notifyURL will be absent.

Referring to FIG. 2, a Pull channel notification registration requestmay be performed by an example embodiment as follows. Event notificationconsumer interface 280, sends a notification registration requestcommunication to event manager 270. The event manager 270 then sends acommunication to a service event source 205 regarding specified channelor group over the current, open HTTPS connection.

In an example embodiment communications may be conducted as follows:

<s:notificationRegistration> <s:channelRegistrationAdds:subscriptionChannel=″xyz″ s:notifyUrl=″abc ″/><s:channelRegistrationDelete s:subscriptionChannel=″xyz″<s:channelRegistrationUpdate s:subscriptionChannel=″xyz″s:notifyUrl=″abc ″ s:suspend=”0”/> <s:groupRegistrationAdds:subscriptionGroup=″abc″ s:notifyUrl=″abc″/> <s:groupRegistrationDeletes:subscriptionGroup=″abc″ <s:groupRegistrationUpdates:subscriptionGroup=″abc″ s:notifyUrl=″abc″ s:suspend=”0”/><s:domainRegistrationAdd s:domainName=″abc″ <s:domainRegistrationDeletes:domainName=″abc″ <s:domainRegistrationUpdate s:domainName=″abc″s:suspend=”0”/> </s:notificationRegistration>

suspend: (optional) This attribute is used to temporarily suspend (value“1”) or reactivate (value “0”) notifications for a channel or group.

Notification Registration Response

The response to the notificationRegistration request also has somewhatdifferent semantics depending on the channel model. In the Push channelmodel, the correct response to the notificationRegistration request isan HTTP response containing a channel and/or group registration responseelement. These elements indicate the success or failure of theregistration request. The channel is closed after the response is sent.

In the Pull channel model, the channel and/or group registrationresponse is returned in an HTTP response. If the request was globally inerror, the connection is then closed. If the request fully or partiallysucceeded, the connection is held open and notification messages areforwarded from the service event source to the event managementplatform.

In an example embodiment communications may be conducted as follows:

<s:notificationRegistrationResponse> <s:channelRegistrationResponses:subscriptionChannel=“xyz” s:subId=“subId” s:retCode=“returnCode”s:message=“message”/> <s:groupRegistrationResponses:subscriptionGroup=“xyz” s:subId=“subId” s:retCode=“returnCode”s:message=“message”/> <s:domainRegistrationResponse s:domainName=“xyz”s:subId=“subId” s:retCode=“returnCode” s:message=“message”/></s:notificationRegistrationResponse>

Notification (Service Event Source->Event Management Platform)

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided an approach to present to the event management platform anotification request indicating that an event has occurred. A serviceevent source 105 can generate a notification request to the eventmanagement platform 120 when any of the events occur for the users'subscribed service instances.

The notification request is sent to the event management platform (suchas 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) whenever a subscribed event occurs ona user's account for the associated service instance. Multiple eventsmay be combined in a single message, grouped by subscription_ID. Themaximum number of events per notification may be set to a predeterminednumber, in an example embodiment such as 100. The maximum size of asingle notification request may also be set to a predetermined number,in an example embodiment. An error may be returned if either of theselimits is violated.

In an example embodiment, the description of the event may include datachanges and other information related to the event such as the type ofevent triggering the notification, a list of data items associated withthe event, the name of a item's data element associated with this event(e.g. readStatus), data associated with the event. E.g. 1|0 forreadStatusChange events. Providing such a description of the event isuseful because it can eliminate the need to query the service eventsource 205 for data changes related to the event.) In the Push model,this message is in the form of a HTTP request using the POST method. Inthe Pull model, this message is a response to a notificationRegistrationrequest.

In an example embodiment, a high water mark (or synchronization anchoror value) may be included in the notification message from the serviceevent source 205. Upon receipt of the notification message from theservice event source, the event manager 270 can store the high watermark value in database 290 (with an association to the service instanceto which the high water mark value corresponds). In an exampleembodiment, the high water mark is a value that is incremented by theservice event source upon an event for a particular service instance(such as for example a single user's single email account). For example,upon sending a notification message to the event manager about an eventof a new email received at the service event source, the high water markis incremented in the notification message. The event manager cancompare the high water mark value in the recent notification messagewith the high water mark value currently stored at database associatedwith the service instance.

If the values are different, the event manager can retrieve data fromthe service event source by requesting that the service event sourcesend any data associated with events associated with notificationshaving high water mark values in between the high water mark value inthe recent notification message with the high water mark value currentlystored at the database. The high water mark is useful forsynchronization based services, such that high water mark changes in anotification can trigger a synchronization between the event managementplatform and an event source. This is in contrast to polling the servicefor changes periodically.

In an example embodiment, communications may be conducted as follows:

<n:request xmlns:n=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f- 4576-b083-3386ce7bb984:”ts=”timestamp” > <s:notification subId=″subid″ notifyInfo=″opaque-data″><s:serviceNotification S:eventType=”serviceInstanceUpdate” <s:eventDatas:eventField=”userID” s:eventValue=″12de33cf3990″/>S:highWaterMark=”hwm”/> <s:itemNotification s:serviceItemUID=″″s:serviceItemService event source UID=″″ s:eventType=″update″<s:eventData s:eventField=”userID” s:eventValue=″12de33cf3990″/><s:categoryNotification s:serviceInstanceUID=″abc″ s:categoryEvent=″abc″s:categoryName=″xyz″ s:normalizedCategoryName=”abc”s:categoryName2=″abc″ s:normalizedCategoryName2=”mno/><s:groupNotification S:subscriptionGroup S:eventType <s:eventDatas:eventField=”userID” s:eventValue=″12de33cf3990″/><s:domainNotification s:eventType=″add″ <s:eventDatas:eventField=”userID” s:eventValue=″12de33cf3990″/> </s:notification>

subId is the subscription-Id generated on a subscription request.notifyinfo must be unaltered from the subscription request. eventType:is the type of event triggering the notification. eventData: is optionaland if present contains a list of data items associated with the event.eventField: is the name of a item's data element associated with thisevent (e.g. readStatus). eventValue: is data associated with the event.E.g. 1|0 for readStatusChange events. highWaterMark: is optional and ifpresent contains the current “high water mark” for the service instancestore. serviceItemUID: is a unique identifier for the service item (e.g.imap message id). serviceItemService event source UID: is optional andif present is a unique identifier for the service item used by theservice event source.

categoryEvent: is an event associated with categories (categoryCreate,categoryRemove, categoryRename).

categoryName: is a category name (may be localized by the service eventsource) (e.g. myInbox).normalizedCategoryName: is a non-localized category name not specific tothe user (e.g. inbox). categoryName2: is a category name (in renameevents use categoryName for the old name and categoryName2 for the newname).subscriptionGroup: is the subscription group associated with thesubscription.

Note: Domain events may indicate changes to the users associated withthe domain (e.g. add, update, delete) or changes to metadata associatedwith the domain (e.g. credentials expiring, service status changing). Inan example embodiment, the response may take the form:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK.

Unsubscribe Request (Event Management Platform->Service Event Source)

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided an approach to present to the service event source a request to“unsubscribe” to notifications. When the notifications on a user accountare no longer desired for a service instance (e.g. the account isremoved), an unsubscribe request can be sent from the event managementplatform 120 to a service event source 105 with the id of thesubscription that should be deleted. For various reasons, the eventmanagement platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) may nolonger require notifications from a service event source (such as 105 ofFIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2) for a user's subscription.

Referring to FIG. 2, an unsubscribe request may be performed by anexample embodiment as follows. Event notification subscriber interface250, sends an unsubscribe request communication to a service eventsource 205. The service event source 205 responds to the unsubscriberequest with an acknowledgement. In an example embodiment, anunsubscribe message with the following form can be sent to terminatenotifications:

POST <subscription-url> HTTP/1.1 <?xml version=″1.0″?> <requestxmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f-4576- b083-3386ce7bb984:”ts=”timestamp” > <s:subscription> <s:unsubscribeRequests:subId=″subscription-id″/> </s:subscription> <request>

subId identifies the subscription ID to be removed and corresponds tothe value returned from the original subscription call to the serviceevent source.

In an example embodiment, a response may take the form:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK <?xml version=″1.0″?> <s:response xmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f- 4576-b083-3386ce7bb984:” ver=”0.1”retCode=”returnCode” message=”message”> <s:subscription><s:unsubscribeResponse s:subId=″subscription-id″ s:retCode=″returnCode″s:message=″message″/> </s:subscription> </s:response>

Get Information Request (Event Management Platform-<Service EventSource)

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided an approach to present to the service event source a “getinformation” request seeking information regarding the subscriptions ofa user. The event management platform 120 may send the service eventsource 105 a request for the current subscription status for a user. Theservice event source 105 will respond with a list of subscriptions andcorresponding data. The Get Information Request message is a requestfrom the event management platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG.2) to the service event source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2)for all of the current subscription definitions associated with auserId.

Referring to FIG. 2, a get information request may be performed by anexample embodiment as follows. Event notification subscriber interface250 sends a get information request communication to service eventsource 205. The service event source 205 responds to the get informationrequest with a response containing the information requested.

In an example embodiment communications may be conducted as follows:

POST < subscription-url > HTTP/1.1 <?xml version=″1.0″?> <s:requestxmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f- 4576-b083-3386ce7bb984:”ts=”timestamp” > <s:getInfoRequest> <s:getUserInfo s:userId=″userid″s:serviceType=″contacts″/> </s:getInfoRequest> </s:request>

userId is the user's id within the service event source (e.g. emailaddress). serviceType indicates the type of service for which data isrequested.

In an example embodiment, a response may take the form:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK <?xml version=″1.0″?> <requestxmlns:s=“urn:uuid:0425d6db-060f-4576- b083-3386ce7bb984:” ><s:getInfoResponse> <s:userInfo s:userId=″userId″> <s:subscriptionInfos:subId=”subscription-id” s:serviceType=″abc″s:subscriptionChannel=”subscription channel” s:suspended=″1″s:subscriptionHighWaterMark=″123″ s:notifyUrl=″notify Url″s:notifyInfo=″opaque-data″/> </s:userInfo> </s:getInfoResponse></request >

subId is the subscriptionId that identifies the subscription.serviceType (optional in the request) indicates the instance's servicetype. When absent in the request, all subscriptions for all servicesassociated with the user should be returned. Suspended indicates whetheror not the subscription is currently suspended. “0” indicates notsuspended (active), “1” indicates suspended. subscriptionHighWaterMark(optional) indicates the current max change ID for this serviceinstance, and may, for example, be a “sync anchor”. notifyUrl (optional)is the URL to which the service event source will send the subscribednotifications. NotifyUrl is provided by the event management platform inthe subscription request. notifyInfo (optional) is the opaque dataprovided by the event management platform in the subscription request.

Error Handling

In example embodiments, the following Subscription/Notification ErrorHandling codes may be used to indicate an error as adjacently described.

Subscribe, Unsubscribe, GetInfo and SuspendSubSubscription error codes:

0 OK, no error 1001 Required parameters are missing. 1002 reserved. 1003reserved. 1004 Timestamp (ts) falls outside acceptable interval. 1005Invalid message format. (xml document error) 1010 Version number in therequest is not supported 1099 Unexpected system error while processingthe request.

Subscription-specific error return codes:

1101 reserved. 1102 Invalid User authentication. 1103 No mail box 1104Duplicate subscription for account that is already subscribed 1105reserved 1106 Maximum number of subscriptions exceeded 1199 UnexpectedSubscription Error

Notification response HTTP error codes:

HTTP/1.1 400 BAD_REQUEST, the request was somehow malformed; HTTP/1.1401 UNAUTHORIZED, no credentials were presented or the credentialspresented are invalid; HTTP/1.1 403 FORBIDDEN, the operation wasrefused; HTTP/1.1 413 REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE, the notification messagewas too large or the number of events or notifications exceeded themaximum.

Regarding subscription error handling, in an example embodiment, on bothHTTP and application error conditions during subscriptions, the eventmanagement platform 120 may retry the subscription request after apredetermined amount of time, in an example embodiment, such as 15minutes. The delay between retries may be important since it preventsany denial of service side effect. Subscription Deletions: the eventmanagement platform 120 will retry the ‘unsubscribe’ request when anotification arrives for a subscription that has been deleted earlier.Also the return code for the notification should indicate account notsubscribed.

In accord with a further aspect of the present disclosure, a serviceconsumer (such as 140 of FIG. 1 or 240 of FIG. 2), may, for example butwithout limitation, take the form of an application, service, program,or the like, running or resident, in whole or in part, on a mobilewireless communications device. By way of example but not limitation,the service consumer could be an email client, a calendar client, anyother Personal Information Management program, or any other program orservice that may benefit from the event notifications managed by eventmanagement platform 120.

An example embodiment of a suitable mobile wireless communicationsdevice 1000 is depicted in FIG. 5, but as will be appreciated by thoseof skill in the art, other configurations of mobile wirelesscommunications device could also be used to host or support a serviceconsumer 140. Furthermore, the wireless communication device may be apager, cellular phone, cellular smart-phone, wireless organizer,personal digital assistant, computer, laptop, handheld wirelesscommunication device, wirelessly enabled notebook computers and thelike.

As best seen in FIG. 5, device 1000 illustratively includes a housing1200, a keypad 1400 and an output device 1600. The output device shownis a display 1600, which may comprise a full graphic LCD. In someembodiments, display 1600 may comprise a touch-sensitive input andoutput device. Other types of output devices may alternatively beutilized. A processing device 1800 is contained within the housing 1200and is coupled between the keypad 1400 and the display 1600. Theprocessing device 1800 controls the operation of the display 1600, aswell as the overall operation of the mobile device 1000, in response toactuation of keys on the keypad 1400 by the user. In some embodiments,keypad 1400 may comprise a physical keypad or a virtual keypad (e.g.,using a touch-sensitive interface) or both.

The housing 1200 may be elongated vertically, or may take on other sizesand shapes (including clamshell housing structures). The keypad 1400 mayinclude a mode selection key, or other hardware or software forswitching between text entry and telephony entry.

In addition to the processing device 1800, other parts of the mobiledevice 1000 are shown schematically in FIG. 5. These include acommunications subsystem 1001; a short-range communications subsystem1020; the keypad 1400 and the display 1600, along with otherinput/output devices 1060, 1080, 1100 and 1120; as well as memorydevices 1160, 1180 and various other device subsystems 1201. The mobiledevice 1000 may comprise a two-way RF communications device having voiceand data communications capabilities. In addition, the mobile device1000 may have the capability to communicate with other computer systemsvia the Internet.

Operating system software executed by the processing device 1800 may bestored in a persistent store, such as the flash memory 1160, but may bestored in other types of memory devices, such as a read only memory(ROM) or similar storage element. In addition, system software, specificdevice applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarily loaded into avolatile store, such as the random access memory (RAM) 1180.Communications signals received by the mobile device may also be storedin the RAM 1180.

The processing device 1800, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, enables execution of software applications 1300A-1300N on thedevice 1000. A predetermined set of applications that control basicdevice operations, such as data and voice communications 1300A and1300B, may be installed on the device 1000 during manufacture. Inaddition, a personal information manager (PIM) application may beinstalled during manufacture. The PIM may be capable of organizing andmanaging data items, such as email, calendar events, voice mails,appointments, and task items. The PIM application may also be capable ofsending and receiving data items via a wireless network 1401. The PIMdata items may be seamlessly integrated, synchronized and updated viathe wireless network 1401 with the device user's corresponding dataitems stored or associated with a host computer system. The PIMapplication is an example of a service consumer 140 that may receivedata related to event notifications from event management platform 120.Other of applications 1300A-1300N could also be service consumers thatreceive may receive data related to event notifications.

Communication functions, including data and voice communications, areperformed through the communications subsystem 1001, and possiblythrough the short-range communications subsystem. The communicationssubsystem 1001 includes a receiver 1500, a transmitter 1520, and one ormore antennas 1540 and 1560. In addition, the communications subsystem1001 also includes a processing module, such as a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 1580, and local oscillators (LOs) 1601. The specificdesign and implementation of the communications subsystem 1001 isdependent upon the communications network in which the mobile device1000 is intended to operate. For example, a mobile device 1000 mayinclude a communications subsystem 1001 designed to operate with theMobitex™, Data TAC™ or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile datacommunications networks, and also designed to operate with any of avariety of voice or hybrid voice-and-data communications networks, suchas AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, WCDMA, PCS, GSM, EDGE, IDEN, and the like. Othertypes of data and voice networks, both separate and integrated, may alsobe utilized with the mobile device 1000 and its communications subsystem1001. The mobile device 1000 and its communications subsystem may alsobe compliant with other communications and networking standards such as3GSM, 3G, UMTS, 4G, LTE, WiFi, WiMAX, UMA, and the like.

Network access requirements vary depending upon the type ofcommunication system. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks,mobile devices are registered on the network using a unique personalidentification number or PIN associated with each device. In GPRSnetworks, however, network access is associated with a subscriber oruser of a device. A GPRS device therefore utilizes a subscriber identitymodule, commonly referred to as a SIM card, in order to operate on aGPRS network. Other appropriate network access methods may also be used.

When required network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, the mobile device 1000 may send and receive communicationssignals over the communication network 1401. Signals received from thecommunications network 1401 by the antenna 1540 are routed to thereceiver 1500, which provides for signal amplification, frequency downconversion, filtering, channel selection, etc., and may also provideanalog to digital conversion. Analog-to-digital conversion of thereceived signal allows the DSP 1580 to perform more complexcommunications functions, such as demodulation and decoding. In asimilar manner, signals to be transmitted to the network 1401 areprocessed (e.g. modulated and encoded) by the DSP 1580 and are thenprovided to the transmitter 1520 for digital to analog conversion,frequency up conversion, filtering, amplification and transmission tothe communication network 1401 (or networks) via the antenna 1560.

In addition to processing communications signals, the DSP 1580 providesfor control of the receiver 1500 and the transmitter 1520. For example,gains applied to communications signals in the receiver 1500 andtransmitter 1520 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gaincontrol algorithms implemented in the DSP 1580.

In a data communications mode, a received signal, such as a text messageor web page download, is processed by the communications subsystem 1001and is input to the processing device 1800. The received signal is thenfurther processed by the processing device 1800 for an output to thedisplay 1600, or alternatively to some other auxiliary I/O device 1060.A device user may also compose data items, such as e-mail messages,using the keypad 1400 and/or some other auxiliary I/O device 1060, suchas a touchpad, a rocker switch, a thumb-wheel, track ball, or some othertype of input device. The composed data items may then be transmittedover the communications network 1401 via the communications subsystem1001.

In a voice communications mode, overall operation of the device issubstantially similar to the data communications mode, except thatreceived signals are output to a speaker 1100, and signals fortransmission are generated by a microphone 1120. Alternative voice oraudio I/O subsystems, such as a voice message recording subsystem, mayalso be implemented on the device 1000. In addition, the display 1600may also be utilized in voice communications mode, for example todisplay the identity of a calling party, the duration of a voice call,or other voice call related information.

The short-range communications subsystem enables communication betweenthe mobile device 1000 and other proximate systems or devices, whichneed not necessarily be similar devices. For example, the short-rangecommunications subsystem may include an infrared device and associatedcircuits and components, or a Bluetooth communications module to providefor communication with similarly-enabled systems and devices.

FIGS. 7A and 7B, illustrate methods 1100 which may be performed by aservice event source (such as 105 of FIG. 1 or 205 of FIG. 2), an eventmanagement platform (such as 120 of FIG. 1 or 220 of FIG. 2) and aservice consumer (such as 140 of FIG. 1 or 240 of FIG. 2) according toan example embodiment.

At 1110, the event management platform sends a request authenticationwith the service event source. At 1112, the service event sourcereceives authorization and then authenticates with and returns anauthentication result to the event management platform. At 1114, theevent management platform receives the authentication result from theservice event source.

At 1116, the event management platform sends a discovery request to theservice event source, specifying user (or domain), service type. At1118, the service event source receives discovery request and returnsinstances of service type for which notifications are available.

At 1122, the event management platform receives the discovery resultsfrom the service event source. At 1124, the event management platformconsults configuration database and selects the service instances forsubscription.

At 1126, the event management platform sends a subscription request tothe service event source, specifying subscription channel. At 1128, theservice event source receives the subscription request, effects therequest, and returns a subscription response including a subscriptionID. At 1130, the event management platform receives the subscriptionresponse from the service event source. At 1132, the event managementplatform consults with the configuration database and selects amongavailable subscriptions for notification.

At 1134, the event management platform sends a notification registrationrequest to the service event source, specifying subscription channel,group registration, or domain registration. At 1136, the service eventsource receives the notification registration request, effects therequest and returns a notification registration response to the eventmanagement platform, the response including a notification channel. At1138, the event management platform receives the notificationregistration response from the service event source. At 1140, the eventmanagement platform awaits notifications.

At 1142, the service event source receives an event (e.g., emailmessage, calendar entry, group membership change, service change, etc.)At 1144, the service event source sends a notification to the eventmanagement platform. At 1146, the event management platform receives anotification from the service event source. At 1148, the eventmanagement platform effects notification.

FIG. 7B continues the flow diagram of FIG. 7A. At 1150, the eventmanagement platform delivers data related to the event associated withthe notification (at least in part) to the service consumer. At 1152,service consumer receives data related to the event associated with thenotification from event management platform. At 1154, service consumereffects the data. At 1156, the event management platform continueswaiting for events.

Steps 1158-1064, are directed to temporarily suspending a notificationregistration. These steps are principally applicable to a pushnotification scenario. When pull notification is used, it may beunnecessary to suspend notification, as the notification channel couldbe closed instead (see steps 1166-1168). At 1158, the event managementplatform receive notification suspend stimulus.

At 1160 the event management platform sends a notification suspendmessage to the Service Event Source. At 1162, the service event sourcereceives the notification suspend request message, effects suspension(i.e., ceases sending affected notifications), and returns a response tothe event management platform. At 1164, the event management platformreceives the suspend response.

Steps 1166 and 1168 may apply to a pull notification scenario. At 1166,the event management platform closes communication channel.Alternatively, at 1168, the service event source closes communicationchannel. Either may close the channel due to close stimulus.

At 1170, the event management platform receives an unsubscribe stimulus.At 1172, the event management platform sends an unsubscribe request tothe service event source. At 1174, the service event source receives theunsubscribe request message, effects the unsubscribe, and returns aresponse to event management platform. At 1174, the event managementplatform receives the unsubscribe response.

The steps or operations in the flow diagrams described herein are justfor example. There may be many variations to these steps or operationswithout departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, thesteps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added,deleted, or modified.

The present application relates to electronic communications systems,which may be implemented using a variety of electronic and opticaltechnologies, including but not limited to: analog electronic systems;digital electronic systems; microprocessors and other processingelements; and software and otherwise embodied collections of steps,instructions, and the like, for implementing methods, processes, orpolicies in conjunction with such systems and processing elements. Itwill be appreciated that in the communications system arts, varioussignal leads, busses, data paths, data structures, channels, buffers,message-passing interfaces, and other communications paths may be usedto implement a facility, structure, or method for conveying informationor signals, and are often functionally equivalent. Accordingly, unlessotherwise noted, references to apparatus or data structures forconveying a signal or information are intended to refer generally to allfunctionally equivalent apparatus and data structures.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come tothe mind of one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachingspresented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings.Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention is not to belimited to the specific embodiments disclosed, and that modificationsand embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of theappended claims.

1. A communications method comprising: opening a communication channelbetween a service event source and an event management platform; at theevent management platform, generating a request to the service eventsource, the request including information associated with thecommunication channel and requested event information related to aplurality of services offered by the service event source for a mobilewireless device associated with a given service user; sending therequest to the service event source; maintaining the communicationchannel open to receive notifications transmitted from the service eventsource including requested event information related to the plurality ofservices offered by the service event source and related to the singleservice user; providing the notifications to the mobile wireless deviceassociated with the given service user.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the communications channel comprises a HyperText TransferProtocol Secure (HTTPS) connection.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe communications channel comprises a pull channel.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the communication channel comprises at least one of asynchronous communication channel and a network socket.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the service event source comprises an email server. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the requested event information comprisesa subscription request.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein theinformation associated with the communication channel comprises asubscription channel ID.
 8. A communication method comprising: opening acommunication channel between a service event source and an eventmanagement platform; at the event management platform, generating arequest to the service event source, the request including informationassociated with the communication channel and requested eventinformation related to a service offered by the service event source formobile wireless devices associated with a plurality of service users;sending the request to the service event source; maintaining thecommunication channel open to receive notifications transmitted from theservice event source including requested event information related tothe service offered by the service event source and related to theplurality of the service users; and providing the notifications to themobile wireless device associated with the plurality of service users.9. The method of claim 8, wherein the communications channel comprises aHyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection.
 10. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the communications channel comprises a pull channel.11. The method of claim 8, wherein the communication channel comprisesat least one of a synchronous communication channel and a networksocket.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the service event sourcecomprises an email server.
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein therequested event information comprises a subscription request.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the information associated with thecommunication channel comprises a subscription channel ID.
 15. An eventmanagement platform for managing communications between at least oneservice event source and a mobile wireless device associated with agiven service user, the event management platform comprising: an eventnotification subscriber interface being configured to send a request tothe service event source, the request including information associatedwith a communication channel and requested event information related toa plurality of services offered by the service event source for themobile wireless device associated with the given service user; and anevent manager being configured to open a communication channel to the atleast one service event source, and maintain the communication channelopen to receive notifications transmitted from the service event sourceincluding requested event information related to the service offered bythe service event source for the mobile wireless device associated withthe given service user.
 16. The event management platform of claim 15,wherein the communications channel comprises a HyperText TransferProtocol Secure (HTTPS) connection.
 17. The event management platform ofclaim 15, wherein the communications channel comprises a pull channel.18. The event management platform of claim 15, wherein the communicationchannel comprises at least one of a synchronous communication channeland a network socket.
 19. The event management platform of claim 15,wherein the service event source comprises an email server.
 20. Theevent management platform of claim 15, wherein the requested eventinformation comprises a subscription request.
 21. The event managementplatform of claim 20, wherein the information associated with thecommunication channel comprises a subscription channel ID.
 22. An eventmanagement platform for managing communications between at least oneservice event source and mobile wireless devices respectively associatedwith a plurality of service users, the event management platformcomprising: an event notification subscriber interface being configuredto send a request to the service event source, the request includinginformation associated with a communication channel and requested eventinformation related to a service offered by the service event source forthe mobile wireless devices associated with the plurality of serviceusers; and an event manager being configured to open a communicationchannel to the at least one service event source, and maintain thecommunication channel open to receive notifications transmitted from theservice event source including requested event information related tothe service offered by the service event source for the mobile wirelessdevices associated with the plurality of service users.
 23. The eventmanagement platform of claim 22, wherein the communications channelcomprises a HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection. 24.The event management platform of claim 22, wherein the communicationschannel comprises a pull channel.
 25. The event management platform ofclaim 22, wherein the communication channel comprises at least one of asynchronous communication channel and a network socket.
 26. The eventmanagement platform of claim 22, wherein the service event sourcecomprises an email server.
 27. The event management platform of claim22, wherein the requested event information comprises a subscriptionrequest.
 28. The event management platform of claim 27, wherein theinformation associated with the communication channel comprises asubscription channel ID.